IMPROVING VOICE CALL PERFORMANCE TESTING

• US 20170325242A1
• Filed: 11/07/2014
• Published: 11/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Nokia Solutions and Networks US LLC (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Solutions and Networks US LLC (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: REIJONEN, Antti Johannes, VAITOVIRTA, Hannu Pekka Matias
• Application Number:
  US15/525,078
• Publication Number:
  US 20170325242A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2236 Quality of speech transmission monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/301 Circuit arrangements at the subscriber's side of the line
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality

Abstract

There is provided a method comprising: determining, by a network element, that at least one terminal device is capable of performing a voice call quality test, sending a radio system specific control message to the at least one terminal device, wherein the control message causes the at least one terminal device to perform the voice call quality test, and obtaining the voice call quality test results.

Claims

1. A method in a radio system, the method comprising:

determining, by a network element, that at least one terminal device is capable of performing a voice call quality test;

sending a radio system specific control message to the at least one terminal device, wherein the control message causes the at least one terminal device to perform the voice call quality test; and

obtaining the voice call quality test results.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining comprises:

receiving a radio system specific result message from the at least one terminal device, wherein the result message comprises the voice call quality test results.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving voice call quality test capability information from the at least one terminal device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the control message comprises a first radio resource control signal and the result message comprises a second radio resource control signal, and wherein the first and second radio resource control signals are standardized radio resource control signals of the radio system.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the voice call quality test is required for the at least one terminal device; and

as a response to the said determining, sending the control message to the at least one terminal device, wherein the control message causes the at least one terminal device to start the voice call quality test.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one terminal device comprises a group of terminal devices.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the control message further causes the at least one terminal device to perform one of the following:

performing the voice call quality test by a voice codec installed to the at least one terminal device, wherein the voice coded is at least one of the following;

hardware voice codec and software voice codec;

or

performing the voice call quality test by a voice call quality tester plugin, wherein the voice call quality tester plugin is connected to the at least one terminal device by a communication link.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein

performing the voice call quality test causes the at least one terminal device to perform the following steps:

performing a test call to a second network element;

generating voice samples from the test call;

analyzing quality of the voice samples; and

creating the result message based on the analyzed quality of the voice samples.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein performing the voice call quality test further causes the at least one terminal device to perform the following steps:

transmitting the result message to the network element.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein

the analyzing quality of the voice samples comprises measuring a mean opinion score for at least one voice sample of the voice samples.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the second network element is at least one of the following:

a second terminal device;

a third terminal device comprising a second voice call quality tester plugin; and

a voice call quality test server.

12. A method in a radio system, the method comprising:

transmitting, by a radio apparatus, voice call quality test capability information;

receiving a radio system specific control message from a network element;

as a response to the received control message, performing the voice call quality test; and

transmitting a radio system specific result message to the network element, wherein the result message comprises the results of the voice call quality test.

13-16. -16. (canceled)

17. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor and at least one memory including a computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause a network element to perform operations comprising;

determining that at least one terminal device is capable of performing a voice call quality test;

sending a radio system specific control message to the at least one terminal device, wherein the control message causes the at least one terminal device to perform the voice call quality test; and

obtaining the voice call quality test results.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the obtaining comprises:

receiving a radio system specific result message from the at least one terminal device, wherein the result message comprises the voice call quality test results.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the network element further to perform operations comprising:

receiving voice call quality test capability information from the at least one terminal device.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the control message comprises a first radio resource control signal and the result message comprises a second radio resource control signal, and wherein the first and second radio resource control signals are standardized radio resource control signals of the radio system.

21. The apparatus of claim 17,

wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the network element further to perform operations comprising:

determining that the voice call quality test is required for the at least one terminal device; and

as a response to the said determining, sending the control message to the at least one terminal device, wherein the control message causes the at least one terminal device to start the voice call quality test.

22. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the at least one terminal device comprises a group of terminal devices.

23. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the control message further causes the at least one terminal device to perform one of the following:

performing the voice call quality test by a voice codec installed to the at least one terminal device, wherein the voice coded is at least one of the following;

hardware voice codec and software voice codec;

or

performing the voice call quality test by a voice call quality tester plugin, wherein the voice call quality tester plugin is connected to the at least one terminal device by a communication link.

24. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein performing the voice call quality test causes the at least one terminal device to perform the following steps:

performing a test call to a second network element;

generating voice samples from the test call;

analyzing quality of the voice samples; and

creating the result message based on the analyzed quality of the voice samples.

25-35. -35. (canceled)